Death Cab For Cutie has been a band for 20 years, and in that time they've signed to a major label and been nominated for Grammys; however, people still refer to them as an indie band. During a recent interview, frontman Ben Gibbard opened up about the band's successes and what they've meant (or didn't mean) to him.
"It's been interesting being in this band all this time because even with all the success this band has had and even though we've been on a major label for literally 14 years — we were on Barsuk for five — we're still considered by virtually everybody as an indie band," the singer-songwriter explained. "Our motivations hadn't shifted that much from making music between that recording at the Pacer House and Narrow Stairs. There were never conversations about, 'What could we do to the music to place in front of more people?'"
"All the sudden, we had sold a million records and had a No. 1 and were nominated for a Grammys, and it was like, 'Oh, that's kind of cool.' But being that it was never the motivation for us doing it in the first place, it wasn't that we were ungrateful for it, it was just like, 'OK, well that happened,'" he continued. "It was something our parents were proud of us for. It was something our parents would talk about amongst themselves. But we didn't have like a giant party when we found out we had a No. 1 record."
That mindset has allowed DCFC stand the test of time and continually put out music that inspires people. Their ninth studio album, Thank You For Today, was one of our favorites of the year.
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